Once and Future: Past Lives kicks of the Big Finish Doctor Who anniversary celebrations.
Updated 03/05/23: It’s release day for Once and Future: Past Lives.
Big Finish’s Doctor Who 60th anniversary celebrations start today with the first part of Once and Future.
The multi-part, multi Doctor series releases monthly and will feature various actors who have played the Doctor as it involves a “degeneration crisis”. You can read more about the first story, ‘Past Lives’, below and Big Finish dropped a video trailer this morning.
As the trailer reveals, various Doctors guest in this story. While it’s primarily an adventure for Tom Baker, we *think* we heard the voices Stephen Noonan, Michael Troughton, Tim Treloar, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. So that’s the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh incarnations.
‘Past Lives’ is followed by ‘The Artist at the End of Time’, an adventure for Peter Davison, with Georgia Tennant and Colin Baker.
We’ll keep you posted on Doctor Who: Once and Future.
Once and Future: Doctor Who 60th Anniversary audio series – first trailer
Once and Future: Past Lives kicks of the Big Finish Doctor Who anniversary celebrations.
Updated 17/04/23: With just a month to go, there’s now a trailer for Doctor Who – Once and Future: Past Lives.
The Once and Future series has been in the works for a number of years and involves all the Doctors who record for Big Finish, along with many of their companions and allies.
‘Past Lives’ kicks off the saga, which drops monthly from May, with the Doctor injured in the Time War and in a state of degeneration. This leads us into a tale for Tom Baker’s incarnation, reuniting him with Sarah Jane Smith (Sadie Miller). Plus, his modern UNIT allies Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) and a certain meddlesome Monk (Rufus Hound)…
Dan Starkey is also in the cast for ‘Past Lives’, although not playing Strax on this occasion. We imagine the popular Sontaran footman might well appear later in the series alongside the rest of The Paternoster Gang.
Monthly Releases
Doctor Who: Once and Future releases monthly from May 2023, with seven tales coming this year. Then, a single release entitled ‘Coda – The Final Act’ follows in November 2024.
The whole series is available to pre-order, in both standard and limited edition versions. However, it should be noted that Big Finish recently announced that the limited edition bundles are now 90% sold…
⚠ Fewer than 300 special edition CD bundles remain of #DoctorWho – Once and Future: https://t.co/FwWmV1EUH1 Be sure to secure your pre-order before it sells out. pic.twitter.com/TvTOubhQ0e
— Big Finish Insider (@bigfinish) April 14, 2023
Of course, the series is also available on download too!
Original article (of 06/03/23) continues…
Once and Future: DW 60th Anniversary audio series first cover revealed
Once and Future: Past Lives stars the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Kate Stewart and Osgood and the Monk.
As we settle into Doctor Who’s diamond anniversary year, the festivities kick off on audio in May. Big Finish are celebrating all six decades of the show with an epic multi-part series.
Titled Once and Future, it features numerous Doctors; Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant are all taking part.
Additionally, at the recent Gallifrey One convention, a host of guest stars were announced. These include Stephen Noonan, Michael Troughton and Tim Treloar, who play the first three Doctors on audio, as well as the late David Warner in his final performance as the Unbound Doctor.
Here’s the premise for the Once and Future series:
The Time War. The Doctor has been injured and brought to a Time Lord field hospital. His body glows with energy, but this is no regeneration into a future form – instead, the Doctor’s past faces begin to appear as he flits haphazardly between incarnations…
Staggering to his TARDIS, the Doctor sets out to solve the mystery of his ‘degeneration’. Who has done this to him? How? And why? From the Earth to the stars, across an array of familiar times and places, he follows clues to retrace his steps, encountering old friends and enemies along the way. Tumbling through his lives, the Doctor must stop his degeneration before he loses himself completely…
Seven hour-long episodes drop monthly between May and October 2023, while a final coda episode lands a year later, in November 2024.
Once and Future: Past Lives
Now, Big Finish have revealed story details and the headline cast for the first instalment. Past Lives, from writer Robert Valentine, stars Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor. He’s joined by Sarah Jane Smith (Sadie Miller), Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) and The Monk (Rufus Hound).
The story sports a terrific cover from artist Lee Johnson which showcases the cast against The Tower of London. Plus, a couple of fearsome looking dinosaurs!
Here’s the synopsis for Past Lives:
Settling as his Fourth incarnation, the Doctor goes in search of the Monk, with a vague memory that he had something to do with his ‘degeneration’.
On Earth, the Monk is meddling, bringing Sarah Jane Smith to the future UNIT HQ to steal a device for an alien race. The Doctor must help Kate Stewart and Osgood foil an invasion before he can confront the Monk about what he knows…
Producer David Richardson said:
“One of the joys of this anniversary release is being able to savour things that could otherwise never happen – like the Fourth Doctor meeting Kate Stewart and Osgood, or his being reunited with Sarah Jane Smith who is living through the day she was left behind on Earth in The Hand of Fear... It sparkles with magical moments that fit beautifully within Doctor Who’s 60th year.”
Doctor Who: Once and Future – Past Lives is released in May 2023 and available to pre-order on standard Collector’s Edition CD + download, or digital download only from Big Finish.
Limited Edition
The whole Once and Future series is also available on Special Edition too. This comes with numbered CDs, bonus artworks and additional audio content, including music suites and extended behind-the-scenes interviews.
Price saving bundles are also available too – check out the options on the Big Finish website.